Frederick Tait (born 27 November 1893) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

socialist activist. Born in Elswick, near

Newcastle-upon-Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is als ...

, Tait was educated at Shipcote Boys' School in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

, and then at the

City of Leeds Training College The City of Leeds Training College was a teacher training college established in 1907 at Beckett Park in Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. After merging with the Carnegie College of Physical Education in 1968 it was renamed the City ...

, following which he became an assistant schoolteacher. From 1923 until 1926, Tait chaired the Gateshead Higher Education Committee, and in his spare time, he lectured for the

Workers' Educational Association The Workers' Educational Association (WEA), founded in 1903, is the UK's largest voluntary sector provider of adult education and one of Britain's biggest charities. The WEA is a democratic and voluntary adult education movement. It delivers lea ...

. Tait's father was a trade unionist, and Tait was inspired by him to join the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

(ILP). In line with the majority of the ILP, he opposed

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. As a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

, he was imprisoned, kept in solitary confinement, and compelled to sew mailbags. In 1922, he became the chair of the Gateshead ILP, then the following year was chair of the Gateshead Labour Party, to which the ILP was affiliated. This brought him to greater prominence, standing unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in Penrith and Cockermouth at the

1924 United Kingdom general election Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

, then from 1925 serving as the North East representative on the ILP's National Administrative Committee. During this period, he wrote several pamphlets, including "What do you Lack?", and "Socialism and Wealth Distribution". By 1932, the ILP and the Labour Party were in conflict, but a conference of the North East Division of the ILP voted to try to resolve the problems. Tait believed that the ILP should disaffiliate from the Labour Party without attempting to resolve the disagreements, and stood down as the region's representative. Tait was also a supporter of

social credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

, and spent the mid-1930s championing the theory. His daughter, Margaret, later married

Lyall Wilkes Lyall Wilkes (19 May 1914 – 28 March 1991) was an English historian, circuit judge and Labour Party politician. Biography A noted barrister and later judge in the North-East of England, Wilkes was a member of Broad Chare Chambers, a leadin ...

, who became a Labour Member of Parliament in 1945.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tait, Fred 1893 births Year of death missing Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates People from Tyne and Wear